The present invention relates to textile treating compositions. In particular, the invention relates to concentrated textile treating compositions which provide improved fabric softening and conditioning benefits, especially when used in the rinse cycle of a textile laundering operation.
Textile treating compositions suitable for providing fabric softening and static control benefits during laundering are wellknown in the art, and have found wide-scale commercial application. Conventionally, rinse-added fabric softening compositions contain, as the active softening component, substantially water-insoluble cationic materials having two long alkyl chains. Typical of such materials are ditallow dimethyl ammonium chloride and imidazolinium compounds substituted with two tallow groups.
Other types of materials are also known as fabric treating and conditioning agents. One such type of fabric conditioning agent is lecithin. Thus, for example, Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Third Edition, Vol. 14, pages 250-269 (Grayson et al Editors; Wiley-Interscience, New York, N.Y.; 1981), generally discloses the use of lecithin for emulsifying, wetting, softening and conditioning textiles, specifically in the industrial sizing and finishing of textiles. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 2,622,045, to Ester, issued Dec. 16, 1952, discloses compositions useful for lubricating and conditioning textile yarns, particularly cellulose derivatives, during industrial processing of these yarns. Some examples in this patent disclose "lecithin" as a component of yarn-treating compositions.
Textile treating compositions comprising quaternary ammonium salts in combination with other agents to provide additional softening and/or storage stability and/or static control are also known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,372,985, to Roth, issued Apr. 3, 1945, discloses compositions containing a "cation-active material" and a phosphatide. The cation-active materials preferred and specifically disclosed are water-soluble amine salts. Specifically disclosed as the phosphatide component is egg-yolk lecithin and soybean lecithin, both which have unsaturated fatty acid chains. This patent discloses that these compositions have utility during industrial processing as softening agents for wool and other textile fabrics. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,151, to Cambre, issued Dec. 29, 1981, discloses detergent compositions which have fabric softening and anti-static properties. Disclosed in this patent is the use of soya-derived hydrogenated triglycerides as dispersion inhibitors in detergent compositions which also contain softening agents.
Notwithstanding the foregoing prior art developments, there remains a continuing need to identify additional textile treating compositions of these same types which are especially effective for delivering fabric softening and conditioning benefits to textiles treated therewith. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide improved textile treating compositions containing both conventional fabric softening agents and particular types of phospholipid materials. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved textile treating method which employs such compositions to impart fabric softening and conditioning benefits.